Jackie Black

Melissa McKee is a twenty-eight year old former Washington DC investigative reporter who quits her hectic city life to return to her home town and work at the small local newspaper. She doesn’t stay there long, as circumstances arise such that her investigative skills are needed by her editor’s relatives and she is sent to a Montana ranch/reform school. The program is run by the irresistible (apparently) Robert Redding who is suspected, by the aforementioned relatives, of mistreating his inmates. It’s lust at first sight for Redding and McKee, as McKee poses as one of the delinquents. Romance ensues.

I believe the most correct adjective for this novel is “overwritten”. It’s filled with simile and easily has 3 times as many adjectives as any other sort of word. Despite all this description, the characters are flat and cliché, and the style of their romance, where a supposedly intelligent adult woman (who, coincidentally, appears more like a sixteen year old girl) is constantly helpless and stupefied whenever in the presence of the gorgeous, mustachioed man, seems more suited to a historical romance than something that is meant to be contemporary. Though this was probably more acceptable in 1984 when the book was published, I don’t think it will impress today’s readers over the age of thirteen. Sadly, the story is also less than interesting and the resolution of the plot employs a device which has lost its punch over the years as well.… (mehr)